On June 29 at 5:30 pm Seattle officials will present the issues associated with the Major Review of the Seattle Comprehensive Plan.

This is the first time a complete review of the Comprehensive Plan will have occurred since 2004. The meeting will be at City Hall, Bertha Knight Landes Room, starting with an open house and light refreshments at 5:30 pm.

The City wants to hear your feedback on this initial “scope.” They are inviting you to be part of discussions about shaping Seattle’s direction for the next 20 years.

Affected by the Plan are jobs, healthy food, good transit connections and a high quality of life – those are some of the goals that good planning and an improved Comprehensive Plan can help achieve.

SWS member Bryan Fiedorczyk will be the West Seattle Spoke and Food representative for the Tuesday, June 28, local Spoke & Food ride, and will be at Chaco Canyon most of the evening. The event runs from 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm. Proliteriat Pizza in White Center is also participating. For more information you can contact Brian at bryan.fiedor@gmail.com.

Antioch University Seattle, as part of its Peter Donaldson Workshop Series, is offering a course on Sustainability Education – Community Curriculum / Design Practicum. The course is an inspirational summer workout on integrating sustainability. The course allows work on your own projects while integrating community data and primary resources.

The course takes 30 clock hours and is equal to two graduate credits through Antioch University and is intended for teachers in all subjects, high school, middle school, upper elementary (4-12). Course members will get to learn and apply in your their own way for your their own purposes. Teams are encouraged!

The first of course begins June 27 and runs through July 1, from 9:00 am through 4:00 pm daily and takes place in West Seattle, at the High Point Neighborhood Center.

This annual summer workout is for bold practitioners ready to re-imagine the relationship between standards-based curriculum, project-based learning and the performance measures of local government. Here is your opportunity to work on refining your own curriculum while integrating primary community resources for a “local living textbook”. Help your students read for information from primary sources, apply inquiry and systems thinking to understand the science and civics of community sustainability goals.

Facilitate your students in conducting research and designing projects that advance these same goals.In addition, this workshop is an excellent introduction to Antioch University’s comprehensive portfolio process for the new OSPI Teacher Endorsement in Environmental and Sustainability Education. Portfolio coaching is available for those choosing the graduate credit option below..

Enrollment is limited to first 20 to register and the course fee is $250, which includes all materials

To Register: Call or email Peter Donaldson, peter@peterdonaldson.net, or by phone at 206-236-8114, to get your name on the list. Registration is confirmed with payment made to: Peter Donaldson, 3635 88th Ave. SE Mercer Is. WA. 98040

By Kate Kaemerle

Dale Roose

Dale Roose, one of the founding members of the West Seattle Tool Library, passed away this week in Tucson after a long illness. He was 55 years old. It was Dale and his wife Tina’s 30th anniversary the day he passed.

Dale was active in sustainability, public access media and a proponent in teaching people about the power of community to make a better world close to home. Dale is remembered for his intelligence, hard work, thoughtfulness, love of animals and wry sense of humor.

He worked with Sustainable West Seattle and the West Seattle Tool Library, Indymedia in Seattle and Pan Left Productions in Tucson. Dale made a number of videos as he documented efforts of humanitarians in Tucson that were trying to keep immigrants from dying in the desert.

In January 2010 Dale was diagnosed with a tumor in his brain. He fought to stay alive through surgery and many complications, but ultimately the tumor grew back.

According to his spouse Tina, there will not be a funeral. Dale donated his body to science and will be cremated and buried at sea. Tina suggests donations be made to the American Cancer Society as they provide much needed services to cancer patients.

The Nature Consortium is seeking volunteers who want to help restore the local greenbelts here in West Seattle.

The Nature Consortium crew are active every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 10:00 am through 2:00 pm at various locations within the West Duwamish Greenbelt.

The West Duwamish Greenbelt is the largest contiguous forest in the city of Seattle, stretching from West Seattle to Burien. It includes 182 acres of park land and another 300 acres in privately owned land. Foxes, red-legged frogs, hawks, and bald eagles are found within the greenbelt. Each work party begins with a short informal forest ecology workshop, and we spend the remainder of the time performing various restoration activities, including planting native trees and shrubs, removing invasive species, mulching previously-planted areas, and more. To connect art into this project we hire local musicians to perform in the woods during many work parties.

For more information and to sign up to help in this urban forest restoration project, contact Lizzie Jackson (Petrin), Restoration Project Coordinator, phone 206-923-0853, or email at lizzie@naturec.org and check out Nature Consortium’s website – www.naturec.org

Seattle Police Department is continuing their series of security tips for your home to help deter residential burglaries. This set of tips focuses on the exterior of your home. You want to deter the burglar from even wanting to try and get in to your home in the first place.

Outside Your Home

Home security starts where the burglar starts – OUTSIDE. Most burglars are adept at “judging a book by its cover,” seeking external weak spots which more often than not mirror the integrity of the home’s overall security. Begin by looking at your home “through the eyes of a burglar.” Can someone gain access to your home without being seen? Do they have cover and concealment to enter through a door or window without neighbors noticing?

Shrubbery

Shrubbery that conceals entries or windows should be trimmed to increase visibility around your home and eliminate hiding places. The thought here is to open up lines of sight so that not only can you see out, but that your neighbors have good visibility of your home and can see if someone is trying to gain access.

Trim shrubs and trees so they do not provide hiding places for an intruder. Use the 3/6 rule; Shrubbery/ground cover should be trimmed to no higher than 3 feet from the ground and trees should be “limbed up” so that the lowest branches are no lower than 6 feet off the ground. This provides for good lines of sight and visibility, and eliminates hiding places.

Remove tree limbs that could allow someone to climb to an upper-story window or balcony. Planting thorny shrubs (such as holly, thistle, Oregon Grape), rosebushes or cacti around the outside of your home can discourage burglars from entering your property.

Lighting

The purpose of good lighting is to allow you to see a threat or suspicious person lurking in your path. If you can see a potential threat in advance then you at least have the choice and chance to avoid it. Good lighting also illuminates areas outside your home so that suspicious persons near your home can be seen. Good lighting is definitely a deterrent to criminals because they don’t want to be seen or identified.

Exterior Lighting Exterior lighting becomes critical if you must park in a common area parking lot or underground garage and need to walk to your front door.

Exterior lighting needs to be bright enough for you to see 100 feet and it helps if you can identify colors. The perimeter of your home or apartment should be well lit, especially at the entryway. Exterior lighting on the front of a property should be on from dusk until dawn. Common area lighting on apartment properties should also either be on a timer or photocell to turn on at dusk and turn off at dawn.

For the rear areas of the home or side yard, consider motion sensor lights that will activate when someone enters the area. A motion sensor light is also recommended for providing illumination of the area where you park your car. Suddenly being illuminated may deter a car prowler or auto thief. Garage or porch lights left on all day on a single family home are a dead giveaway that you are out of town. Have these lights on times, a combination of times, photocells and motion sensors, or have a trusted friend or neighbor turn your lights on and off for you while you are away.

Interior Lighting Interior lighting is necessary to show signs of life and activity inside a residence. A darkened home night after night sends the message that you are away. Light timers are inexpensive and can be found everywhere. They should be used on a daily basis, not just when you’re away. In this way you set up a routine that your neighbors can observe and will allow them to become suspicious when your normally lighted home becomes dark.

Typically, you want to use light-timers near the front and back windows. The pattern of them clicking on and off simulates actual occupancy. The same timers can be used to turn on radios or television sets to further enhance the illusion of occupancy. Just remember to set the timers to come on at different time intervals and not all at the same time.

Tools and Ladders

Keep all tools and ladders securely locked and out of plain view. Burglars may use these to break in to your or someone else’s home.

Keep ladders, garbage cans, building supplies and tools locked up out of view so you don’t provide an intruder with a platform and the means to break into your home.

Fencing

A solid privacy fence can provide a burglar with cover to break into your home. Consider an iron railing (topped with spikes, to discourage climbers), or chain-link fence instead. If you have an opening gate, use a padlock, combo or cipher lock on it to prevent intruders from easily penetrating the perimeter of your property.

Alarm Signs, Block Watch Signs and Operation ID stickers

Spare Keys

Don’t hide a spare key near your front door; burglars know all the hiding places. Leave a spare key with a trusted neighbor instead. Do not leave spare keys in the glove box of your car. Thieves have prowled cars in front of homes, or in driveways and carports of homes, and have found the house keys. They are able to determine with pretty high accuracy that they house keys found in the car most likely go to the home at which the car is parked.

Secure any spare keys in your home out of sight. Keys left hanging on a bulletin board or hook gives thieves easy access to your home or vehicle for later. Also consider the cost of re-coring all your car and door locks if keys are taken.

Being Away From Home For Extended Periods

Let your trusted neighbors know that you plan to be out town so that they can watch your home for you. If they see suspicious activity while you are gone, they will know to call 911 for you. Also let neighbors know if someone will be house-sitting for you so they don’t call 911 inadvertently. Don’t let mail and newspapers pile up. Have the Post Office hold your mail until you return. Consider having a neighbor bring in your newspaper rather than having the paper stopped; the fewer people who know your home is not occupied the better (except when it comes to your trusted neighbors).

Refer to the Interior Lighting section above for suggestions on making your home appeared occupied.

House Numbers

Be sure your house number is visible from the street, particularly at night. Reflective numbers outside on the front of your home will assist emergency responders (fire/medical/police) in quickly locating your home and will assist neighbors (in the event of an emergency or reporting suspicious activity) in directing responders to your aid.

Steam meets, free and open to the public, are held on the 2nd Saturday of each month, from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm. Steam meets include operating hot gas, gasoline, air, and steam engines, beverages, snacks, and guided plant tours including oral history and dynamic display of plant engines. Cited below are some links to videos and photos of this local but hardly-known cultural and engineering feature:

Whether it is a unique vintage faucet or a brand new model, plumbing fixtures and projects can be daunting for any homeowner. This workshop will help participants shop for fixtures, understand code requirements, and replace parts. The Environmental Coalition of South Seattle will join to talk about conservation and environmental responsibility.

Are you trying to protect your local rivers, save an unspoiled landscape, or build trails where everyone in your community can enjoy nature? You have until August 1 to consider using the National Park Service’s technical assistance program.

The National Park Service Can Help. Every year, the National Park Service helps hundreds of locally-driven projects that create opportunities for healthy outdoor recreation, connect youth with the outdoors, and connect communities to parks.

Rivers, Trails, & Conservation Assistance from the National Park Service provides no funding, but our experienced staff can help communities plan for success. Applications for technical assistance will be accepted until August 1.

Potential applicants are strongly encouraged to discuss their project ideas with a staff member in your area before preparing an application. Visit www.nps.gov/rtca for complete information and application.

Seattle area projects which have used the NPS Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance program include the West Seattle Walking Trails project and more recently the Northeast Seattle Walking Trails project. Both projects were co-sponsored by Feet First and an array of local community councils in West Seattle and in the Northeast area of Seattle.

The Seattle Department of Neighborhoods seeks your input on our community outreach and engagement activities. In line with our mission of civic participation, the department is asking community members for their feedback and ideas on how we can most effectively provide support to the community. The deadline for this survey is June 30, this Thursday.

Following the adoption of the city’s 2011-2012 budget, Seattle City Council provided a Statement of Legislative Intent with the directive to evaluate, refocus, and prioritize DoN’s community outreach and engagement functions to maximize limited resources. Results from this survey will provide much needed information on the department’s present strategies and inform activities going forward.

If you are interested in participating in a focus group discussion in your area, please contact Pamela Banks at pamela.banks@seattle.gov, or 206-233-5044.